Power management IC market set to decline

SAN FRANCISCO—The market for power management semiconductors, once forecast to grow modestly this year, is now set to decline 6 percent in 2012 due to pronounced weakness in global consumer markets, according to IHS iSuppli.

Power management chip revenue is projected to amount to $29.9 billion in 2012, down from $31.8 billion last year, according to an IHS report on the power management IC market. Power management chip revenue increased by 1.5 percent last year, according to IHS.

The new IHS forecast represents a cut from the market research firm's forecast issued in September, which called for the power management IC market to grow by 1.7 percent this year.

"The decline this year comes on the heels of a general slowdown in consumer spending all over the world," said Marijana Vukicevic, senior principal analyst for power management at IHS, in a statement. "Despite the popularity of devices like smartphones and tablets, the consumer markets as a whole remain soft, with specific segments—like notebooks and other computer platforms—registering perceptible slowdowns."

Deceleration of energy initiatives in Asia is also expected to contribute to the forecasted decline in the power management IC market this year, IHS said. Government incentives encouraging improved-efficiency cooling systems for residential and commercial use have expired, but new replacement stimulus efforts never took place in 2012, according to the market research firm.

IHS said it expects the power management chip market to rebound in 2013. The firm expects the market to grow 7.6 percent next year to reach $32.2 billion, slightly higher than the size of the market in 2011. IHS projects the market to grow modestly over the following three years, reaching $38.7 billion in 2016.

The problem is not a shrinking of the markets appetite but rather a concentration of the appetite inside Apple.
Apple is selling products at a huge pace. But look at who is selling their power management ICs. Dialog at 38% GROSS MARGIN!!! See iPhone,iPad, teardown reports.
While the whole semiconductor market is down, Dialog is growing 28%. They will be $750 Million this year! That $750 Million in 2012 at 38% margin was $1.25 Billion last year at over 50% margin sold to many different players.
The whole semiconductor industry is changing. What once was hard is now easy. While the number of IC products will continue to increase, the premium for those products will continue to decline because it doesn't take a TI with 20,000 patents to knock things out that are acceptable.